In March, the GOP-controlled Senate voted to increase the federal debt limit by $781 billion, bringing the debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion. Neat trick. If you find yourself outspending the legal limits, just change the legal limits. And now, two months later, GOP lawmakers decided to raise it again. A $2.7 trillion budget plan pending before the House would … Read More
Bad Karma
President Bush is the grandson of a graverobber. A graverobber of Indian burial grounds. Of Geronimo’s grave. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that this is a bad thing.
31%
The low gets lower. What’s also interesting is Bush’s disapproval rating. The new poll has it at 65%. That’s near-historical. Nixon’s all-time high disapproval rating (it was on the day he resigned) was 66%.
Bush’s Highs And Lows
According to Bush — WORST MOMENT OF HIS PRESIDENCY: 9/11 Well, that makes sense. But what does he think his best moment was? You know what Carter’s answer was to his "best moment"? The Camp David negotiations. Clinton’s best moment? Resolution of the Kosovo crisis BEST MOMENT OF DUBYA PRESIDENCY: When he caught a big fish in his lake. No … Read More
Bush, The Liberal?
Some conservative pundits and thinkers are trying to distance themselves from Bush these days by calling him (I still laugh at this) a "liberal". Digby predicted this would happen last November. The god for rightwingers is not Bush, but conservatism — so rather than admit that Bush’s obvious policy embarassments are the failure of conservatism, they hope to re-cast Bush’s … Read More
Porter Goss Resigns
Goss announced that he is leaving his short tenure as the CIA director, a day after it was revealed that the Watergate hotel has been responding to subpeonae regarding the Cunningham-Wades-Wilkes prostitute scandal — a scandal to which Goss has been attached. [BACKGROUND: Last week, Harper’s magazine reported that, for more than a decade, Cunningham-linked defense contractor Brent Wilkes curried … Read More
As Sure As The Sun Sets In The West…
…you will never ever find me riding as a passenger in a car (or a plane) driven by a Kennedy. AFTERTHOUGHT: Okay, maybe Caroline. RELATED: The wingnuts are having a field day about how a member of a highly-influential political family may have been driving while intoxicated, and how he was getting preferential treatment because of his family name. Yeah, … Read More
AP Poll
31% of conservatives think that Democrats should control Congress. When you think about it, that’s an astoundingly high number.
Republican Priorities
Josh Marshall notes that Sen. Elizabeth Dole has remarkable candor when it comes to expressing Republicans’ priorities lie this year : It all started earlier this evening when TPM Reader HH was on the receiving end of one of Dole’s blast emails begging contributions for the Republican senate committee. Says Dole, in her pitch: "If Democrats take control of the … Read More
White Evangelicals Jumping From Bush Ship (Albeit Slowly)
Pew Research: A new analysis by the Pew Research Center finds that while the president still has the support of a majority of white evangelical Protestants, significantly fewer of them now approve of his performance in office (55% approve, 38% disapprove) than was true at the start of his second term when 72% approved and only 22% disapproved.
Primary Day 2006 (Updated and Bumped)
UPDATE: Well, dear Nathan lost, getting roughly 32% of the vote, compared to Brunstetter’s 44%. He’s a two-time loser now, having lost his bid for NC Congress in 2004 (Note to Nathan: you can take down these websites after a couple of years). Name on Ballot Party Statewide Ballot Count Peter Samuel (Pete) Brunstetter REP 4,423 Nathan Tabor REP 3,167 … Read More
Not So Fast, Senator Alexander
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) proposed a Senate Resolution yesterday to the effect that the Star Spangled Banner should only be sung in English. In his press release, Alexander stated: That flag and that song are a part of our history and our national identity. It declares some of our national ideals, in being the “land of the free and the … Read More
Bush vs Nixon
From A Tiny Revolution: The poll numbers are Gallup, which notes: "If current trends continue, by no means a certainty, Bush’s rating would be at an all-time low for any president of 22% by June of 2007." But right now, Bush’s disapproval is almost on a par with Nixon’s, on the day Nixon resigned.
Why Outing Plame Mattered
Here’s the press release (in its original allcaps): INTELLIGENCE SOURCES SAY VALERIE WILSON WAS PART OF AN OPERATION THREE YEARS AGO TRACKING THE PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS MATERIAL INTO IRAN. AND THE SOURCES ALLEGE THAT WHEN MRS. WILSON’S COVER WAS BLOWN, THE ADMINISTRATION’S ABILITY TO TRACK IRAN’S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS WAS DAMAGED AS WELL. Interesting.
Another Scandal May Get Ratched Up A Notch
A federal judge has just ordered that the White House must turn over its visitor logs to public interest group Judicial Watch (who sought the documents under a FOIA request). What this means is that we will soon learn when, how often, and whom, convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff visited within the White House. The logs are to be turned over … Read More